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Gold-winner in the "Most Likely to Save the Planet" category of the Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY).

"This brilliant book is a big-picture synthesis of the new curriculum for activists, educators, social and systems entrepreneurs, planners, and "community organizers" at all levels.Evolution's Edge is vital reading for activists, educators, progressive thinkers, and anyone concerned about the state of our world. A visually pleasing book, its generous use of graphs and charts make clear concepts such as our evolutionary footprint, projected climate change impacts, world populations and economic growth." - Kolin Lymworth, The Vancouver Observer

It is now five minutes to midnight on the doomsday clock, reflecting the fact that we are closer to assuring the obliteration of our species than we have been at any time since the early eighties. We are rapidly approaching a tipping point, where we will either transform our violent, exploitative global system into a peaceful, cooperative one, or enter a catastrophic decline.

Evolution’s Edge shows that limitless economic expansion is impossible on a finite planet. Our growth-based global system will collapse as critical resources become scarce and major ecosystems fail. However, new ideas, values, and technologies can help us avoid disaster and create a better world.

Using evolutionary systems theory, Evolution’s Edge explains how societies evolve and why rapid, nonlinear change is not only possible but inevitable. It describes:

Collapse—how cascading crises will soon provoke system failure

Transformation—how emerging technologies, ideas, values, and social organizations are supporting the evolution of a sustainable system

Evolution’s Edge is a practical guide to a sustainable future and is vital reading for activists, educators, progressive thinkers, and anyone concerned about the state of our world.

Graeme Taylor is a social activist committed to constructive global transformation and the coordinator of BEST Futures, a project supporting sustainable solutions through researching how societies change and evolve.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"To compose Evolution's Edge: the Coming Collapse and Transformation of Our World, Graeme Taylor consulted the findings of reliable authorities on the subject, wrote in English readily understood by readers who are not scientists, and identified his sources with 584 endnotes. As well, he made all of his 64 statistical tables easy to understand and even a delight to read by presenting them within illustrations by Fereshteh M. Sadeghi, his graphic artist spouse. The result is one of the most absorbing books so far written on the current ecological crisis." --The CCPA Monitor, November 2008 --Roy LaBerge

Review

"Evolution's Edge gives readers a beautifully lucid account of humankind's increasingly dire predicament and how we can turn the coming crisis into an opportunity for profound and beneficial change. If our children and grandchildren are to have a future worth living, we're probably going to get there along the path this book describes. Written with charm and style and rich with insight, this book is highly recommended for anyone looking for reasons for hope."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Evolution's Edge is an intelligent and accessible meta-analysis of the root causes, likely impacts and probable outcomes of the environmental, social and economic breakdowns we are beginning to experience. In keeping with its deep environmental perspective, most of the thoughts presented in the book are recycled (and well footnoted). Their synthesis however is quite original and the overview it provides borders on enlightening. The author refrains from blame and sees our present challenges as natural and predictable outgrowths of our economic and societal development through the ages. Our mature industrial/capitalistic society offers freedom and wealth to the few while it impoverishes the many and puts our global environment at great risk. The author makes clear that any economic system based on ever increasing exploitation of a finite resource base is not sustainable and will ultimately fail. If we are not able to solve the social/economic/environmental Rubik's Cube we hold together in our hands the inevitable outcome will be a nasty reversion to a far simpler form of society. If we are able to manifest the intelligence, creativity and willingness to act for the common good then we stand a good chance of seeing society transform into something altogether more satisfying and sustainable. Nothing is written, but it is clearly an exciting time to be alive and I'm grateful that Evolution's Edge has laid out so clearly the challenges and choices we face both collectively and individually.

EVOLUTION'S EDGE: THE COMING COLLAPSE AND TRANSFORMATION OF OUR WORLD explains why the collapse of our destructive global system is inevitable - and how the emergence of a new kind of sustainable civilization will save humankind. Obstacles to human progress are cultural, and technology can accelerate the evolutionary process by using ethical values and views as tools - featured here in Evolution's Edge, a pick for any college to general library concerned with social issues.

The book is well organized and very clearly written. The data used to support the analysis and conclusions of the book is exceptionally well presented. The graphics used to explain the illustrations are outstanding.

While the book is replete with hundreds of stated information sources, many of them are unknown to me. Many of the books most shocking conclusions are based upon these sources. The references to sources would have been much more credible if the author had included more direct quotes in place of paraphrasing.

More About the Author

Graeme Taylor coordinates BEST Futures (www.bestfutures.org), a family project applying evolutionary systems theory to research and model societal change. He is a researcher, lecturer and speaker and the author of Evolution's Edge: The Coming Collapse and Transformation of Our World, which won the Independent Publisher's 2009 Gold Medal for the book "most likely to save the planet".

Graeme has been a social activist since he began working with social justice and peace organizations in the early 1960s. Following a career as an emergency paramedic in British Columbia, he completed a Masters in Conflict Analysis and Management at Royal Roads University in Victoria, Canada. Graeme is currently an Adjunct Reader with the School of Integrative Systems, University of Queensland; an Advisor to the 2010 World Peace Festival; an Honorary Research Advisor to the Australian Peace and Conflict Centre; and a PhD Candidate at the Griffith School of Environment in Brisbane. He lives in Brisbane with his wife, Fereshteh Sadeghi, a Persian-Australian graphic designer.